west january 30, 2016
DESCRIPTION
The lifestyle magazine inside The Western Morning NewsTRANSCRIPT
30.01.16
Rock n’ rollThe Devon jeweller with star quality
+ CLEANSE LIKE A PRO
+ NICK MORAN
INSIDE:
DON’T MISS:
February style � xes
24
+ VALENTINETREATS
+ WINTER NAUTICAL
+ FITNESS FASHION
WIN:
Cover_Jan30.indd 1 26/01/2016 14:50:08
St Austell8 Manfi eld Way, Holmbush, PL25 3HQ - 01726 70711
WadebridgeBridgend, PL27 6DA
01208 [email protected]
Hayle4 Fore Street, Copperhouse, TR27 4DY - 01736 755 700
Truro Tregolls Road,
TR1 1SB, 01872 222226 [email protected]
www.julianfoye.co.uk
W I N T E R S A L Ethe furnishers
SALE! Hypnos 5ft for 4ft 6” price SALE! Bedroom Furniture SALE! FREE DRAWERS
ALL THE BIGGEST BRANDS TO ORDER AT SALE PRICES - Ercol, G Plan, Stressless, Duresta, Parker Knoll
Price Match
Promise
Quality and Style
FREE LOCAL DELIVERY AND SETTING UP
Visit our inspirational, designer led showrooms for service you will remember for the home you love
Untitled-1 4 12/01/2016 14:02:30
33
5 VALENTINE’S TREATS TO WINDelicious goodies to be won
9 JUST BETWEEN US...Sh! We have the latest gossip!
12 DEVON’S SILVER LADYThe rock-chick jeweller causing a stir
16 IN LOVING MEMORY One mother’s deeply-moving story
22 ART DECO UPDATEA Cornish home gets back to its roots
26 ANNE SWITHINBANKPlan now for tasty veg this summer
30 EARN YOUR STRIPESNautical fashion gets a refresh
32 WORK OUT IN STYLEYes you can, says Kathryn Clarke-Mcleod
34 CULTURE VULTUREWhat’s hot in the Westcountry now
36 BOOST YOUR WELLBEING Great ways to feel your best this week
41 SAGE ADVICETim Maddams has wise words on herbs
43 ALE AND HEARTYOur beer expert’s favourite brews
contents[ [Inside this week...
‘I’ve already made sowings under glass of
aubergines and spinach, while garlic cloves are
sprouting in pots’
Anne Swithinbank is ahead of the game - catch
up with her on p26
12 SILVER LADYThe Devon silversmith causing a stir
22 ART DECO UPDATEA Cornish home gets back to its roots
WORK OUT IN STYLEThe � tness kit you need right now32
EARN YOUR STRIPESNautical fashion gets a refresh30
9 ALL THE GOSSIP Sh! You heard it here � rst!
41 SAGE ADVICEWise words on cooking with herbs
Contents_Jan30.indd 3 26/01/2016 14:08:29
Becky Sheaves, Editor Sarah Pitt Kathryn Clarke-McLeod Catherine Barnes Lynne Potter
4
[[ [[welcome[ [
If you haven’t yet heard of Naomi Davies, I have a hunch you soon will. She’s been somewhat busy in recent years raising her two children but, now that they are a bit older, she really is coming into her own as a jewellery maker. Her rock-n-roll take on silver-smithing is very cool indeed - I can’t help feeling that when and if Madonna gets married next time, one of Naomi’s rings would be just the thing for her.
It also helps that Naomi herself looks like she should be fronting a rock-chick band herself. Instead, you’ll fi nd her painstakingly crafting beautiful bangles and necklaces at her home in Newton Abbot - read all about it in Sarah Pitt’s
fascinating interview with her on page 12 today.Another inspiring woman in this week’s mag-
azine is Clare Babbage from Exmouth in east Devon. She is running the London Marathon this
year to raise money for the cot death char-ity that helped her so much when she lost her son Harry. It’s a deeply-moving but ul-timately uplifting story of a mother’s love, on page 16 today.Finally,
do make sure you enter our competition to win a Valentine’s gift pack of Godminster cheese from Somerset (see opposite) - I’ve just tried some of their smoked cheddar and it’s better than roses or chocolates, it really is!
[ [She’s raising money for the charity that
helped her so much
Becky Sheaves, Editor
Prepare to be inspired...
[
SECRET PLACESWhere to go, what to do44
COVER IMAGE: Elizabeth ArmitageEDITORIAL: [email protected]: 01392 442250 Twitter @wmnwest
@GillyMole
Hey @WMNWest check it, I’m bang on trend!
MEET THE TEAM
Becky Sheaves, Editor Sarah Pitt Kathryn Clarke-McLeod Catherine Barnes Lynne Potter
Tweetof the week
TO ADVERTISE: Contact Lynne Potter: 01752 293027 or 07834 568283, [email protected]
EDS_LETTER_1THING.indd 4 26/01/2016 14:53:01
55
Win someone’s heart with a romantic and tasty Valentine’s gi� from Somerset. The Godminster Heart to Heart gi� pack has three artisan cheeses from the Bruton-based dairy, including Vintage Organic Cheddar and hand-made Organic Brie in pretty heart shapes. Order yours, at £17.45 including delivery, for Valentine’s Day from www.godminster.com.
one thingIf you buy
this week...
We have three Heart to Heart gi� packs, each worth £17.45, for three lucky readers to win. To be in with a chance, tell us where Godminster Dairy is based. Email your answer, marked Godminster, with your name, address and phone number, to
[email protected] by February 13. Normal terms apply, West will not share your details.
Win
EDS_LETTER_1THING.indd 5 26/01/2016 12:05:47
6
the
West’s picks for spending your time and money this week
wishlist
Amy-Jo Zinyohwera Amy-Jo, 28, is an artist who lives
in Exeter. We spotted her wrapped up warmly in a great sales bargain, this classic camel coat from quality
brand Jaeger. She’s on the hunt for a leather jacket, she told us,
another timeless piece that she will wear and wear. What a smart lady!
Coat: Jaeger (was £567) reduced to £268
Snood: Topshop £16
Cardigan: Primark £7
Leggings: Primark £4
Boots: Celtic & Co £135
Bag: Marks & Spencer £32.50
STREETSTYLE STAR
WO
RD
S A
ND
PIC
TU
RE
: EL
LIE
JO
NE
S A
ND
SO
PH
IE W
HIT
ING
Cactus print suitcase £55 Oliver Bonas
Liberty alphabet stickers £7.99 www.candleandcake.co.uk
Jelly and cake ovengloves £26 www.annabeljames.co.uk
UGG slippers £70 Amara
PRETTY
Cute
Wishlist_Jan30.indd 6 25/01/2016 13:45:41
7
Wishlist
This stylish lifestyle store near Totnes in south Devon sells reclaimed and antique Indian furniture and other beautiful, unusual things for your home. Give an individual touch to your own furniture with their selection of glass and ceramic
handles. We also love the antique brass glass stars and hand-etched iron platters. Do have a look, too, at the glamorous jewellery.Nkuku, Harbertonford, www.nkuku.com or call 01803 465365
Sail away with me
STORE WE ADORE:
Nkuku
Breton fi shing boat model £30 www.thenauticalcompany.com
Flower bouquet stud earrings £8
Accessorize
Orla Kiely secateurs £25 quinceliving.co.uk
Wall desk £238.80 (down from £398) by Devon-based www.newmakers.com
BLOOM
It’s a snip!
Wishlist_Jan30.indd 7 25/01/2016 13:46:10
8
talking points
Cheryl Fernandez-Versini looks great in this sheer maxi dress, doesn’t she? Stepping out on the red carpet recently at the London Fashion Awards, the singer wore the bespoke dress with � oral sequin embellishments from Topshop, and teamed the evening gown with a pair of over-the-knee textured boots from Sergio Rossi. Cheryl’s dress is not for sale, but the peep-through look is just the thing for an evening out when you want to cover up but still show o� some skin. Not only will it give you a stream-lined silhouette, but it can look alluring without being overly revealing.
SHEER genius
OPTION BPrettyPer Una Speziale dress £129 Marks & Spencer
OPTION ADramaticRed maxi dress £59 Miss Selfridge
stealherstyle
OR MAKE IT YOUR OWN
Naomi maxi dress £145 Phase Eight
ny mother with a teen-age daughter (or indeed a younger one – I heard the amusing term ‘three-
nager’ recently) will know about backchat. With a child’s impul-siveness teamed with an adult perceptiveness in how exactly to lash out, your daughter’s sass can be truly maddening and hurtful. However it can also, according to at least one expert, be healthy.
That certainly came as a sur-prise to me, but an article I read championed a child’s ability to stand up against authority, es-pecially for girls. After all, they won’t be at home forever. When you’re not there to tell them what to do, they’ll need to challenge authority fi gures and stand up for their rights: say, to a broadband provider that isn’t fulfi lling its contract, or a company that isn’t looking after its workers prop-erly, or a corrupt MP.
Got a sassy lassie? Who knows, you could have a budding political lobbyist on your hands. And the world needs those.
The challenge is maintaining parental authority while trying not to squash them or make them feel powerless. Girls are shushed a lot – some research suggests, much more than boys. While boys can be excused for being rowdy or loud, girls are taught it isn’t nice behaviour. And nice is what girls should be, right?
The problem with nice is that it doesn’t give you a very broad vocabulary. It’s easy to be nice. What’s hard – yet necessary – is
to not be nice. You need to learn how to stand up for yourself in life, whether it’s to a waiter who overcharged you on the bill or a husband who’s a bully.
Girls are terrifi ed of being per-ceived as “mean”. That’s one of the reasons why mum is so em-barrassing – when she goes sail-ing into school to object about the maths curriculum, or complains at gymnastics that her daughter
isn’t getting enough time on the uneven bars.
Of course, there are techniques to the language of problem resolution. “You’re all a bunch of lazy cows” will get less results than beginning with “I wonder if we could fi nd a way to encour-age a more proactive approach,” for in-stance. For goodness
sake, we learn this stuff at work. Why aren’t we using it at home?
I am resolving to start teach-ing my daughter how to not be nice. This could take the shape of self defence classes, or work-shops where people shout at each other just to get it off their chest, or something else. I’ll have to re-search it. Ultimately, I am hoping that a good understanding of the language of problem resolution will also improve the backchat. That would be nice.
Story of my life...
Gillian Molesworth
When teenage backchat gets beyond a joke
Gillian Molesworth is a journalist and mum-of-two who grew up in the USA and moved to north Cornwall when she met her husband
A
Got a sassy lassie? Who
knows, you could have a budding
political lobbyist on your hands. And the world
needs those
MoleyGossip_Jan30.indd 8 26/01/2016 14:09:58
‘I OWE IT ALL TO...’
The love of a good woman can make all the di erence, can’t it? Legendary actor SIR MICHAEL CAINE says he would have been dead “long ago” had he not married his wife SHAK-IRA BAKSH.The two wed in 1973 and have a daughter, Natasha. Sir Michael cred-its Shakira – now Lady Caine – with reforming his character.He tells the Radio Times: “Without her I would have been dead long ago. I would have probably drunk myself to death. I used to drink a bottle of vodka a day and I was smoking too, several packs a day.“I wasn’t unhappy but it was stress. You know, ‘Am I going to get another picture? How am I going to do this part? How am I going to remember all those lines? I’ve got to get up at 6 in the morn-ing and I hope the alarm works.’“There was always some stressful thing. Meeting Shakira calmed me down.”The 82-year-old adds: “She’s my right-hand man, my con� dante. I tell her everything. I was famous when I met her, but I couldn’t have got this far without her.”
9
Justbetween us!Gossip, news, trend setters and more – you
heard all the latest juicy stu here � rst!
30.01.16
The Great British Bake O ’s MARY BERRY turned down the chance to appear in Strictly Come Dancing.The celebrity chef and TV personality has revealed that she enjoyed watch-ing the show, but would not star in it herself. “My husband and children would kill me. I have two le� feet and would make a terrible fool of myself.” The big question is, will the Beeb ask Andrew Ridgeley to strut his stu this
year? The former Wham! star, lives with Bananarama singer Keren Wood-ward near Wadebridge and is a huge Strictly fan, but denied rumours of an appearance last year. He Tweeted at the time: “No truth in #bbcstrictly tho def consider if asked.” We say: Fingers crossed!
EDDIE REDMAYNE was desperate to be a member of the red-headed Weasley family in the Harry Potter � lms but “never got the call”.But the actor is � nally getting the chance to play a part in the wizard-ing world with his starring role in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. It’s based on JK Rowling’s book, a prequel to Harry Potter.
The 33-year-old says: “In the Harry Potter � lms, there’s a whole ginger family, and I never got an audition. And I was like, come on, it’s outra-geous! So I was desperate. Every actor in England was in the Harry Potter � lms, but I never got the call. Now I’m having my moment.” He plays writer Newt Scamander – also a redhead, apparently.
‘I wanted to be a
Weasley’ [[‘I NEVER GOT THE CALL’
STRICT
Sir Michael Caine:
STRICTLY?
NO THANKS
MoleyGossip_Jan30.indd 9 26/01/2016 12:57:04
10
in pictures
Bright girl: Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton rode in a point-to-point
Star appearance: Gok Wan met Greig Curno at the Plymouth Theatre Royal panto
Stunning: Frosty morning
at Crook Peak, Somerset
Hard work: Beano the heavy horse is clearing Fingle Woods in Devon’s Teign Valley
WIP_Oneofus_jan30.indd 10 25/01/2016 14:22:51
Corrie: Connor is best known as Coronation Street villain, Pat Phelan, who recently rejoined The Street a� er 18 months away. “I’ve got news for you – he’s even worse than ever!”
Plymouth: He grew up in Toxteth, Liverpool but has lived in Plymouth since his 30s. “Plymouth has been great to me. I will always be a boy from Liverpool, but Plymouth is my home.”
Acting: Connor’s acting career started when he wandered into the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth.
Health: In 2003, Connor su� ered a heart attack, and doctors advised him to slow down. “That is like telling me
to be a bit less Connor McIntyre.” But he then decided to become an artist, as well as an actor.
Art: He studied for an access course in Saltash, then went to Plymouth University where he gained a degree and a Master’s in Fine Art.
Career: Connor now calls himself a “painter who does a bit of acting,” despite decades of screen and stage work. He is also a former lifeguard, boxer and car salesman.
Community: Connor has an art studio in Plymouth. He recently donated one of his huge paintings to the May� ower primary school in the city. By Sophie Whiting
11
Why, oh why?
talking points
My little pony
In colour
O� cially-recognised markings found on horses’ heads
1 Blaze2 Chin spot3 Mealy muzzle 4 Milk-bucket muzzle5 Snip6 Star7 Stripe8 White face9 White lips10 White muzzle
DID YOU KNOW?
This week:
Famous faces with links to the Westcountry
ONE OF US
Coronation Street actor and artist Connor McIntyre, 55, lives in Millbay, Plymouth
Connor McIntyre
The happy list
10 things to make you smile this week1 Nick Moran in Betrayal,
Exeter’s Northcott, from Feb 18
2 Half term plans can’t wait
3 Beautiful dawns to be seen at 7.30am
4 Ed Byrne at Hall for Corn-wall, Feb 2. Very funny
5 Hearty stews delicious
6 Ilfracombe its � rst � lm festival is in March (11-13)
7 Tom Nichols Exeter City goal-scoring hero
8 Roast garlic mmm...
9 The Friends reunion please let it be happening
10 Amethysts February’s pretty birthstones
Books with colourful titles
1 Fi� y Shades of Grey (EL James)
2 The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
3 Green Eggs and Ham (Dr Seuss)
4 Anne of Green Gables (LM Montgomery)
5 The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
6 The Little White Horse (Elizabeth Goudge)
7 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (Jeanette Winterson)
8 Mystery of the Blue Train (Agatha Christie)
9 The Golden Compass (Philip Pullman)
10 The Green Mile (Stephen King)
Most regretted tattoos, according to Premier Laser Removal
1 Fairies 2 Signs of the Zodiac3 Celtic designs 4 Chinese symbols 5 Butter� ies 6 Stars 7 Barbed wire 8 Foreign language quotes 9 Dolphins 10 An ex-partner’s name
Competition winners:Congratulations to the latest winners from our competitions in West magazine
• Personalised manicure set from www.vivabop.co.uk: Sue Sleep, St Issey; Amy Rich, Totnes• £50 Silly Old Seadog voucher: Karen Clarke, Appledore• Lily Loves toy sheep from Lily Warne Wool: Jan Wing� eld, Taunton; Maddie Beer,
Awliscombe; David Rogers, Tavistock; Jill Treby, Sturminster Newton; Helen Barwick, Templecombe
Connor’s paintings
are up to � ve metres wide. His favourite brush is the
size of a � oor mop
WIP_Oneofus_jan30.indd 11 26/01/2016 14:10:54
12
People
Meet Devon’ssilver lady
aomi Davies is totally absorbed in her work when I walk into her work-shop one cold January morning. A glamorous willowy fi gure, dressed
elegantly in black fi tted jeans and polo-neck, she is often the model as well as the maker of her rock n’ roll vibe jewellery. Meeting her in person, it is not hard to see why.
She’s also refreshingly down-to-earth, with a genuine passion for what she does. “I do love it,” she admits. “I completely lose myself and forget about everything else when I’m working. I think it is really good therapy, actually, as you can’t really think about anything else when you are concentrating.”
Putting down her tools on her workbench, she laughs out loud if I ask her if she’s ever been a professional fashion model, or the front woman of a rock band. The answer’s actually no, al-though this mum of two certainly looks the part.
In one set of photographs she’s pictured posing with an electric guitar, wearing a leather jacket and one of her necklaces, a silver guitar-shaped pendant. In others, taken by her great friend the Devon-based photographer Sophie Baxter, she’s
Naomi Davies, who is based in Newton Abbot, tells Sarah Pitt about the kick she gets out of creating her rock ‘n’ roll jewellery
teaching others her craft, still managing to look Vogue-style elegant in shirt and jeans.
The art of silversmithing takes a long time to perfect, explains Naomi, but she does love sharing her passion for working with silver and gold. Many beginners will start with a ring, a relatively simple project. At the other end of the spectrum there’s her own work, including an intricate neck-lace featuring tiny 3D silver diamonds, like metal origami, the result of many hours of painstak-ing cutting and bending, fi ling and fusing.
Naomi adores working to commissions: “It is lovely when some-one is creative and comes to me with an idea,” she says. But she admits it is hard to make a living as a jeweller, crafting each piece by hand.
“It is very hard to charge for the hours that go into each piece,” she says. “When I run courses, people always say after a couple of hours ‘now I understand the work that goes into this’. It really is a labour of love. You do have to believe in your-
self, and it is that which keeps you going.”For Naomi, 48, learning the painstaking craft
of silversmithing has not been an overnight thing. Indeed, you could say that this mum-of-two has been in training all her life. She grew up in an artistic home in Newton Abbot, the daugh-ter of the gifted artist Nathaniel Davies, a con-temporary and friend of the celebrated St Ives
School artists Sir Terry Frost and Patrick Heron.
That her father, who died in 1996, is not as well-known as the others is, she says, down to the fact that he concentrated on teaching others.
His self-portraits, painted as a young man, show both his prodigious talent and the dark good looks that Naomi has inherited.
“Dad was originally from Dowlais in South Wales, and all the relatives on his side look very Spanish,” says Naomi. “There were a lot of im-migrants who settled in South Wales so maybe we have Spanish ancestors! He started off doing fi gurative work and then, like a lot of artists who
N
By Sarah Pitt
‘I took up jewellery-making and found I liked it. I love
expressing creative ideas in a practical way’[ [
Jeweller_Jan30.indd 12 26/01/2016 14:22:08
13
ma
in p
ict
ur
e: e
liz
ab
et
h a
rm
ita
ge
Jeweller_Jan30.indd 13 26/01/2016 15:03:28
14
are naturally gifted, he moved into more abstract work, which we think was probably his downfall as he should have stayed with his own style.
“He could have been really successful. He never went to London, though, because he came to Newton Abbot College to teach art and met my mum, who arrived to do a course, and they fell in love! My mum Heather is an artist too, and I am one of four children, so home was like a mini art college.”
Naomi always thought she’d make a living through some kind of artistic endeavour, and after leaving school, she did a year’s foundation art course to try out different disciplines.
“I spent a lot of time in the jewellery workshop and I really enjoyed it,” she says. “I found I liked expressing creative ideas in a practical way.”
A spark had been ignited, and she left the family home in Newton Abbot for the West Surrey College of Art and Design in Farnham, where she studied 3D design.
Later, Naomi returned to Newton Abbot,
People
Jeweller_Jan30.indd 14 25/01/2016 14:18:49
15
became a design technology teacher, met her husband and got married. Her creative work, she admits, had to take a back seat when her two children were smaller, although she continued to teach silversmithing. With her daughter Nina now 11 and her son Joey 15, though, she now has more time to concentrate on her own work. She is hoping to set up her own online shop, so that people can buy her work with the single click of a button. “I think that is probably key, because jewellery is such an impulse buy. You fall in love, then you have to buy it!”
Naomi pours her heart and soul into each piece, using heat to make the silver soft enough to work with and to fuse tiny pieces together. Her fi nished jewellery, in a display cabinet in the workshop in her garden, has a rock and roll vibe, albeit in a chic way.
“It has absolutely got to be elegant!” says Naomi laughing. “I am going for a biker look but in a sophisticated way. I think the market is pretty much full for more restrained ‘art’ jewel-lery. So I wanted to do something that is a little bit more funky and fashion-based. Elegant, but a little bit edgy.”
She takes delight in thinking outside the box with her designs. She has used patent leather to cover a silver bangle, set with tiny silver dots, which references a punk vibe.
“I’m going to do a choker next, with spikes on. It will have the look of a punk collar, but a bit more delicate,” she adds.
Her pieces inspired by the fretwork of the guitar include silver rings for both men and women.
“I just dreamed this idea up when I was lying in bed one night,” she says. “I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to make a ring with the design of a fret-work of a guitar. I’ve since made a few of them, and once made a very special one in white gold, for a guitarist.”
“I’ve always loved musical instruments, par-ticularly stringed instruments,” she adds. “I think they are such beautiful things.”
She has also enjoyed working with marble, fashioned into circles in a necklace to make a feature of the grain within the stone. Particu-larly stunning are the discs of dark marble mounted with gold in a pair of dangly earrings, which would cost around £190 to buy.
Working with gold, admits Naomi, is particu-larly nerve-racking. “If something goes wrong with silver I will sometimes put it on the scrap-heap, but with gold it has to be perfect fi rst time.”
In silversmithing, the many stages a piece of jewellery has to go through have the potential to discourage a beginner. With much heating and shaping involved, a piece often looks worse before it looks better. For Naomi, though, this is part of
the magic.“When you
come to the last stage and are cleaning the jew-ellery up, and the fi nal piece is re-vealed, it is like fi nding buried treasure,” she says. “It is so ex-citing. It makes all
those hours of work seem worthwhile.”
Find out more at www.naomidavies.co.uk and www.facebook.com/NaomiDaviesJewellery
As well as her own work, Naomi teaches silver-
smithing in workshops
‘I’m going to do a choker
next, with spikes on. Like
a punk collar, but delicate’
MA
IN P
ICT
UR
E: S
OP
HIE
BA
XT
ER
LE
FT
: LE
SL
EY
-JO
TH
OM
PS
ON
Jeweller_Jan30.indd 15 25/01/2016 14:19:18
16
hey only use the blue lights on an ambulance in an emergency. And then they turned them off, because now, there was nothing they could do. Harry was in a little
mint green babygro and it was still pulled open, to expose his chest.”
Just weeks before, Clare Babbage had looked down at her newborn baby’s tiny face and felt as though she’d witnessed a miracle. Now there was a shocking stillness and si-lence.
T o d a y , she says, friends con-sider her to be “the c o m p l e t e earth-moth-er”. With one watch-ful eye on her lively son Tommy, who is two and determined to impress me with his ball-throwing skills in the kitchen, Clare confesses she fell “utterly in love with motherhood” when Harry was born.
Clare is now in a happy long-term relation-ship with her partner Ian, 40, with whom she has sons Benji, seven, Danny, fi ve and Tommy. She is also mum to Hannah, 19, and Georgie, 17, from her relationship with Harry’s father Simon.
“Harry was my fi rst baby and, back then,
I didn’t have any friends who had babies. It wasn’t the world I lived in” says Clare, who was just 22 when Harry was born. “Having Harry was amazing. And losing him com-pletely shaped me and changed what mat-tered to me.”
Fair-haired Harry was born on July 31 1995 at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, weigh-ing a healthy 7lb 8oz.
“I had quite a long labour with him and then a little person appeared. I was overwhelmed with this little being I’d made,” smiles Clare. “I had an instant love for him. To me, he was absolutely perfect. I remember him looking up at me with little frown lines from where he was trying to focus.”
Clare formed a profound bond with Harry, who fed well, put on weight and seemed to be thriving.
“That night, I went to bed,” she remembers. “I remember Harry looking at
me. I said to him, ‘I’ll look after you and keep you safe’. He was in his moses basket and I fed him at 1am. I woke up at 5am and I just had a sense... the baby should have been awake.
“It was completely dark and I touched him and he felt slightly cool. Then I felt something on his face. I scooped him up and ran into the living room and turned the light on in a blind panic.”
Clare saw a trickle of blood below Harry’s nose. Terrifi ed, she dialled 999.
Losing her baby son Harry to cot death was a shattering blow for Clare Babbage from Exmouth. But, with the support of her family, she
is set to run the London Marathon in his memory, to raise money for the charity which has given her vital support
‘He’s stillmy son’
T“By Catherine Barnes
‘I woke up at 5am and
I just had a sense... the
baby should be awake’
CLARE BABBAGE
Marathon_Mum_Jan30.indd 16 25/01/2016 13:51:18
17
Interview
Harry was born on July 31 1995 at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, a healthy 7lb 8oz
PH
OT
OG
RA
PH
Y: S
TE
VE
HA
YW
OO
D
Marathon_Mum_Jan30.indd 17 25/01/2016 13:52:07
18
“It’s diffi cult to remember how it happened in order, but some things pierce through the haze,” she says, as she recounts the desperate attempts to save her baby. “They told me to fetch a neigh-bour and talked me through CPR. Then the local doctor turned up. The ambulance arrived and we got in. There were bright lights inside. And then, the doctor pronounced him dead.”
It was no longer an emergency. There was nothing medics could do to bring Harry back, so the siren fell silent as the ambulance continued to the hospital.
“I was taken into a relative’s room with Harry. One of the things I remember vividly is that a nurse wrapped him in a blanket and she cried.
“I’m so grateful to her for being so very human, for shedding her professional veneer and sharing a moment like that.”
Then Simon arrived and found Clare cradling Harry. “He found it hard because now this was, well, a dead baby. But I would have held on to him forever.”
Arriving home, the bereaved parents found their front room still littered with the medical paraphernalia used to try and save Harry.
“Because it was a sudden death, it can’t be as-sumed I’m not an awful baby killer. So I had to be interviewed by the police. It’s completely right to do so, but I hope the procedure has changed when they are interviewing people, because it was...” Clare searches for the word, and one senses she’s being diplomatic in the extreme “...tricky”.
“The awful thing is you do wonder if you’ve done anything inadvertently wrong. But Simon never doubted me. Had it been the other way round, I might have asked, what did you do?
“Even so, I think I’ve spent the past 21 years blaming myself,” she admits. “I’ve had counsel-ling. The greatest peace I can have is to know I did the best I possibly could with the information I had.”
Within two months of Harry’s death, Clare found she was pregnant again, with Hannah.
‘This year would have
been his 21st birthday.
I’m running in his memory’
Clare’s children with the tree planted in their
brother’s memory
Marathon_Mum_Jan30.indd 18 25/01/2016 13:52:38
19
Interview
“When Harry died, I knew I couldn’t replace him, but it was like I’d had a door opened into moth-erhood and all this love I needed to express. If a husband dies, you’re a widow, but if your baby dies, you lose your status. You’re just a mum without a baby.”
But the joy was suffused with fear. “When I had Hannah, it was terrifying. Heart-warming, but terrifying,” she explains. “Harry’s inquest had concluded that it was a Sudden Infant Death – with no cause. There was some relief it wasn’t anything I’d done, but the hardest thing is that you have no idea how to keep your children safe in the future. It’s all out of your control.”
Support was at hand through The Lullaby Trust (then Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths) which put Clare in touch another mum who had lost her own baby. “I remember she told me her son would be 19 and thinking, could it still be relevant, when it’s such a long time ago? Well, now I know. It’s a lifetime’s loss.”
Clare is pictured with partner Ian and her five
surviving children
Every year the family visits Harry’s Memory
Tree on his birthday
Marathon_Mum_Jan30.indd 19 25/01/2016 13:53:04
20
Interview
Through the charity, Clare had the loan of a portable monitoring device, which has been worn by all fi ve of her other children up until the age of two. Happily, Tom’s birthday this month marked the stage when infants are deemed past the danger period.
“I know he’s my last baby, so I don’t have to go through that deadline ever again,” says Clare, who spent several years as a single mother, when, devastatingly, she and Simon broke up.
“Those years were very low. It was really a matter of survival and just trying to keep my babies alive,” she says. “It took me years to grieve for Harry properly. I wished I’d taken footprints and a lock of his hair, but then I ask myself, would that be enough?” She shakes her head. “Nothing would be enough.”
Then, in 2004, she met Ian through friends. The couple’s fi rst baby together, was son Benji. “Benji suffered with projectile vomiting as a baby and was diagnosed with pyloric stenosis. I was absolutely terrifi ed and thought, my boy babies, they’re all going to die.”
Thankfully, the condition was remedied with an operation on Benji’s small intestine, when he was still a few weeks old. Danny followed Benji, but heartbreakingly, Clare endured six miscar-riages before Tommy arrived and completed the family in January 2013.
“I couldn’t have started my journey losing Harry and ended it having a miscar-riage,” she says simply. “Tom’s a miracle.”
Over the years, Clare discovered emotional release by taking up run-ning. “It’s brilliant for clearing your head and processing diffi culties,” she says. “Running a half marathon at the age of 30 was life-changing and thinking about Harry got me over the line.”
Harry will be number one in her thoughts when she runs her fi rst London Marathon in May, fundraising for The Lullaby Trust.
“I want to give back to the charity that’s given so much to me,” she says. “It’s thought that some
babies are born with vulnerability but, if we get the environmental factors right, those babies will be okay.”
This summer, when Harry would have turned 21, the family will gather at the Memory Tree they planted for him in nearby Oxton. It’s grown from a reedy sapling into a magnifi cent silver birch. “We always go on his birthday and it’s a
joyous thing to do as well,” says Clare. “Today, when people ask me how many chil-
dren I have, I hold back,” adds Clare. “In the early days, it would have been a complete betrayal not to include Harry, but now it depends on whether I want to talk about it. So I might say, ‘I have fi ve children,’ but yes, I’m still a mum of six. And I’ve a lot of mothering left to do.”Sponsor Clare at www.virginmoneygiving.com/ClareBabbage or text CLAB95 and the amount you wish to donate to 70070. For information on baby safety, visit www.lullabytrust.org.uk
‘I want to give something
back to the charity that
has given so much to me’
Clare’s sons Benji and Danny are now seven
and five years old
Marathon_Mum_Jan30.indd 20 26/01/2016 14:16:10
21
interiors22 culture34
food42 recipes41
Intro_Jan30.indd 21 26/01/2016 12:58:33
22
REAL HOMES
elen Rush has fond memories of her childhood stays in The Art House. Her grandparents bought the property more than 60 years ago, so that their
large family had somewhere special to spend their holidays.
Originally built for an artist called JW (John Willie) Matthewman, who moved from his native Sheffi eld to paint in Cornwall, the comfortable Art Deco-style house is a short drive away from the sandy cove of Porthcurno. The beach, which is in the far west of Cornwall, is overlooked by the open air Minack Theatre set into the cliffs.
“I have been all over the world, but I have not come across a nicer beach,” says Helen. “We spent all our summers there as children, me, my brother and sister and our parents. That was our holidays.”
And the house is still an important part of Helen’s life, now that is has been completely re-stored by herself and her husband. It is not in the village of Porthcurno itself, but at Treen, a village back from the sea, tucked away in a valley.
“My grandfather was one of eight and he bought the house specifi cally for his large family to go on holiday in,” says Helen. “He never made any money out of it. He had three sons – including my dad – and they all used it for holi-days. So it is full of memories.”
Now Helen, an illustrator, and her husband Carl, a graphic de-signer, have bought the house from Helen’s father and uncle. They have poured their design talent into updating the proper-ty, which is rented out for short breaks as The Art House.
It has, admits Helen, been a delicate balancing act at times, preserving the essence of a re-laxed holiday home, while also making it lighter, brighter and better equipped. In particular, Helen was keen to install three smart bathrooms to replace the single tiny one with the rusty bath which they inherited.
“I guess I wanted to make it nice and natural and fresh,” she says. “We wanted to keep the Art Deco feel to it, and I think we have done that, espe-cially with the new bathrooms. Although they are
all different, they all go together, without there being a theme as such. I didn’t want it to look too contrived.”
The house was built in the late 1920s and has well-proportioned rooms as well as plenty of stor-age. The spacious feel has been en-hanced by Helen and Carl’s make-over, which has involved making the house much lighter, through the use of pale-hued paint and fi x-tures. They have furnished it with a mixture of new furniture and re-vamped family pieces.
“There are two chairs in the living room that my grandparents bought shortly after they were married,” says Helen. “We have restored those and my mother-in-law made new
H
Keeping it simpleSarah Pitt discovers how a Cornish Art Deco home, originally built
for an artist, has been sympathetically brought up to date
‘We restored the two chairs
in the living room that my grandparents
bought shortly a� er they got
married’ [[Interiors_Jan30.indd 22 25/01/2016 17:33:40
23
Interiors
Interiors_Jan30.indd 23 25/01/2016 17:34:04
24
Interiors
cushions. It was all about bringing a freshness to the look of the house, without replacing every-thing.”
In the kitchen Helen and Carl have extended the room and installed a skylight to bring in more daylight. The room is now a large space with plenty of space for people to gather around the table. Green ‘crackle’ metro tiles are a feature of the main wall behind the units.
“We chose those tiles because when we started redoing the room, we found an old range hidden behind the chimney breast. I matched the colour of the tiles surrounding them,” says Helen.
They took out the chimney breast and in-stalled slick modern appliances – the old range, sadly, just wasn’t useable. Helen then placed Ercol chairs, which were originally popular in the 1950s, around the kitchen table.
“It is quite a transformation,” says Helen. “There wasn’t a kitchen like this before, just a scullery, which was freezing. The room called the kitchen had a carpet and a cooker in it and that was pretty much that. It was all a bit Heath Robinson-ish. The water system was antiquated and the whole house was damp and patched up. Nothing was new or terribly shiny.”
That has certainly all changed, with comfort being high on Helen’s agenda throughout the house. And she’s partnered a top-notch power shower, sleek appliances and comfortable new beds, with quirky fi nds, searching high and low
Enliven your chic monochrome kitchen colour scheme with a more eye-catching, bold shade on your splashback wall tiles
STYLE TIP:
for the pieces which have just the right feel. “Last year I spent most of my time on the
internet, looking for tiles and other bits and pieces,” she says. “The taps are from Italy and I found them on eBay, while the basins came from Germany, also on eBay.”
In places Helen has decided to splash out and in others she has been able to economise. In the main bedroom, an investment piece Ercol wooden bed is partnered with a good value white Hemnes chest of drawers from Ikea. “The main bedroom is really luxurious,” says Helen. “It has got an amazingly comfortable bed and is now such a different place to the way it was.”
Black and white is a prevailing theme in many of the rooms. “Those green tiles in the kitchen are really the only colour in the whole house!” Helen says. “I’m a big believer in white and I like white, grey and black together.”
This can be seen to great effect in the twin bed-
room under the eaves, where monochrome prints feature on cushions and on a rug on the fl oor. “That is a really sweet room. It has sloping ceil-ings and you can look out of the window across the valley,” says Helen.
A children’s room with bunk beds is another study in black and white. “That is now a com-pletely modern bedroom, a bit quirky and play-ful.”
Helen says she hopes she’s retained the unique charm of the house which has been in her family for so long. “We haven’t kept it as a museum, but what we have done is make it more comfortable so that everyone can enjoy it,” says Helen. “We do absolutely love it, and maybe other people can tell that by what we have done here. I think it is a really special place.”The Art House is available to rent for short stays and holidays through Unique Home Stays. Visit www.uniquehomestays.com or call 01637 881183.
Interiors_Jan30.indd 24 25/01/2016 17:35:13
25
GET THELOOK
Create a mid-century vibe with monochrome and real wood
Graypants Scraplight Disc medium lampshade £221
www.rume.co.uk
Saffron midnight diamond storage box £229 www.
swooneditions.com
Vintage Ercol chair £165 www.raspberrymash.co.uk
Aziz hand-woven rug £199 www.swooneditions.com
Linus bunk bed £499 www.made.com
Interiors_Jan30.indd 25 25/01/2016 17:35:34
ow is your garden?’ a friend asked and I found myself reply-ing “sleeping”. This is
about right for the end of January but there is promise, even in the veg plot. Our kitchen garden is literally that, as the walls of the house act as one of its boundaries. I can lounge against a kitchen worktop, gaze out and dream of all the crops it will produce in the months to come. I’ve already made sowings under glass, of auber-gines (germinat-ing in a propa-gating case) and spinach (in mod-ules), while garlic cloves are sprout-ing in pots. Our garden is encour-aged to develop a life of its own and in one bed, there have been eruptions of honesty plants where dollops of compost were dumped for last year’s runner beans.
Our compost heap is never hot enough to kill seeds, which means more weeds than I’d like but also lovely surprises like sunfl owers and forget-me-nots. I try to work around them so some can reach fl owering size and this in turn at-tracts pollinators and benefi cial in-
sects whose larvae munch through pests. Other fl owers tend to drop their seeds in the small area where they grow, thus perpetuating their colonies. With no extra work or input, there are patches of evening primrose (their seeds are much-loved by goldfi nches), Ipomoea ‘Grandpa Ott’ (a shimmering purple morning glory) and poached egg plant.
Yet this part of our garden is mainly about food and, with that in mind, I’m sowing broad beans. Crops do best when grown in a certain order and these cold-tolerant beans grow well early in the year. They appreciate cool temperatures (as do peas) and early sown plants are
less likely to be attacked by black bean aphid. After the beans and two to three sowings of peas, come French beans and then runner beans to deliver the main legume crops through to autumn. A lot of folk think they don’t like broad beans because they’ve been fed dis-gustingly mealy, elderly ones, kept too long off the plant and clamped inside thick chewy skins. Home grown beans picked young and
26
ANNE SWITHINBANK
Summerdreams
Gardens
Devon’s Anne Swithinbank, panellist on Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, is getting ready for a bumper crop of vegetables in her kitchen garden
H
I’ve already made sowings under glass of
aubergines and spinach, while
garlic cloves are sprouting in pots [[
“
Gardening_Jan30.indd 26 25/01/2016 14:24:58
I have a small back yard in a row of terraced houses. How can I plant for winter interest in such a small space?
For New Year, I visited friends in Romsey, Hampshire, who have a narrow, paved yard more like a passageway to get to vehicles out the back. Most of one side was a raised bed with two winter show-stoppers. The scent of a Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ wafted but was contained within the fences and walls and the structural, evergreen sacred bamboo (Nandina domestica) was decorated by bright red berries. There were hellebores, snowdrops and pots of bulbs waiting for spring. On the other side, was a Phyllostachys bamboo with golden stems adding evergreen height and stem colour. Add key evergreens and winter flowering plants, leaving gaps, pots and the walls and fences for spring and summer flowers.
27
I’m planning a greenhouse and wondering how best to site it. Should the ridge run east-west, or north-south?
It is generally held that an east-west orientation for the ridge will give the best winter light and quicker recovery from cold nights (imagine low winter sun shining mainly from the south through a glass side). However if you want the best light for summer crops, a ridge running north-south is good and you can imagine light shining into the sides first from the east, then the west. This can also avoid overheating (worse when the sun shines solidly from the south through one side). For logistical reasons (level, shelter from wind, all-round access) mine runs north west to south east. Plan plenty of soil beds inside, a solid path for access and don’t hide it away – make it a feature.
Q
Question time with AnneWest reader queries answered by Anne Swithinbank
Send your questions to Anne at [email protected]
This week’s gardening tipsAnne’s advice for your garden
Q
• Top up the water in bird baths, as a water source is vital for wild life. Ponds are fabulous and if you don’t have one, and there are no small children in the family, start planning.
• Continue to thin out tangled branches of overgrown apple and pear trees but don’t go mad. This
is a job best carried out gradually over several years.
• Plant hardy Cyclamen coum from pots into difficult areas of dry shade under trees or towards the base of hedges. Ours are blooming now under a clipped beech. Clear invading growth from existing plants.
Sowsweet peas either four or five to a 9cm/3.5in pot, or set one per long Root Trainer module. Place in an unheated greenhouse or frame to germinate but protect from mice. Sweet peas sown last autumn may need their growing tips nipped out to encourage branching.
This weekend This weekend (January 30 and 31) is the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch (go to www.rspb.org.uk). Apparently, this is the world’s largest wildlife survey with over half a million people poised to count numbers of the various sorts of birds seen in their garden over a given hour.
tender are a revelation and I’ve been responsi-ble for many converts. Friends have got into the habit of dropping in during June in the hope of being asked around for a meal or at least being given a bag of fresh pods.
Our clay soil is far too cold and wet for direct sowings this early. Instead, standard-sized seed trays are filled with soilless mul-tipurpose compost and the beans set out grid-fashion and a good 5cm/2in apart, so with four up and six along, 24 fit snugly in the tray. Bury them about half way down, water them in and leave them on the greenhouse staging or in a cold frame to germinate, protected from mice. Alternatively, sow seeds separately into generous 5cm/2in modules
Under glass, I can control watering and the beans eventually germinate during a window of milder weather. When they reach a stocky
8cm/3in high, harden them off by standing them outdoors at least by day and then, when the soil is neither saturated nor frozen, split them carefully apart and plant in a double row 30cm/12in apart with the beans a trowel length apart. Water them in and let them get on with it. They are incredibly tough and frost will sometimes leave them look-
ing sadly wilted. A couple of hours later, they’ll have sprung back
up again and will carry on as though nothing has happened. In colder places like Westcountry moors, you could sow a
little later or pop a tunnel cloche over them. But they
grow better in full light.For these early sowings, use a hardy
variety like ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ or ‘Valenciana’ but I’ve also had good results with ‘Masterpiece Green Longpod’. And if you find art in your vege-tables, the green beans of the latter look lovely in a colander with the silvery ones of ‘Aquadulce’.
Gardening_Jan30.indd 27 25/01/2016 14:25:19
28
BeautyBeauty
Expert advice from beauty guru Abbie Bray of Newton Abbot
Beauty box
Abbie’s
‘Cleansing your skin is
so important - here are some products that
will do the job’ [[
Cleansing your skin is important regardless of whether you wear make-up or not – and if you do wear make-up, not removing it properly can affect your skin more than you may realise. Face wipes are a popular choice these days, as a
cheap and quick way to get the job done. I am definitely guilty of using them after a long day. But they are full of chemicals that can irritate your skin and dry it out, too. I like to use liquid cleansers with water – they are perfect for my combination skin as they control excess oil without drying my skin out. Cream cleansers are better for a drier skin, as a gentler way to remove make-up without causing irritation. Here are a few cleansers that I really do trust to help.
Calming
Bee Good Honey and Propolis 2 in 1 Cream Cleanser
£11.50 This comes with a pure muslin
cloth and is good for problem
skins, as propolis has powerful
anti-microbial properties.
RadiantElemis Pro Radiance
Cream Cleanser £29.50 My mum loves this
cleanser. It is perfect for her normal to dry skin, and she says it makes
her skin look smoother and more radiant.
RichLiz Earle Hot Cloth
Cleanse and Polish (John Lewis, £15.50) The hot
cloth really helps to remove any stubborn make-up and it gently exfoliates the skin too. I love the rich, creamy plant-based cleansing
cream.
Mary Kay Skinvigorate
cleansing brush £35Cleansing brushes were a huge hit in 2015. They are
designed to give your skin a deeper cleanse – and this is
one of the best I’ve tried.
Brush up
Mary Kay Botanical E� ects Cleanser for normal/combination skin £13 This was great for closing my pores as well as re-
moving my make-up, plus it was gentle on my skin. It works really well with the Mary Kay cleansing brush (see above).
Gentle
Lush Angels on Bare Skin Cleanser £6.95
This traditional clay-based formula contains lavender and
rose to calm the skin. Rather messy to use, but great results!
Fit for a queen
Beauty_Jan30.indd 28 25/01/2016 17:19:17
29
Shop
+
£28 Dorothy Perkins
£75 River Island
£19 La Redoute
£38 River Island
£30 Simply Be
The editYour straight line to style: terracotta meets denim for weekend chic
£15 La Redoute
+
£145 La Redoute
+ + +
+
£39.95 Seasalt Cornwall
£80 Next
Beauty_Jan30.indd 29 26/01/2016 13:06:38
30
hey say all the nice girls love a sailor. Be that as it may (and who are we to judge?!) right now, smart
women are most defi nitely taking a leaf out of the nautical style book. February is a tricky time of year for fashion, with the tail-end of the winter sales looking tired and unexciting but, thus far, nothing like the sort of warm weather needed to tempt us into the spring collections.Sailor stripes are, perhaps, more com-monly thought of as a summery style direction, but this year winter nau-ticals are a real presence on the high street. Navy and white (with, maybe, a hint of red in the mix) can add a fresh look to your wardrobe during the dark days of late winter. Or should that be early spring? We certainly hope so!
T
Sailorstripes
Jacket £39 T-shirt £19La Redoute
Fashion_Jan30.indd 30 25/01/2016 14:27:33
31
Fashion
Dress £39 La Redoute
Bikini £9 George
at Asda
Blazer £49 La Redoute
Scarf £12 BHS£12 BHS
Fluffy cardigan £37 Missy Empire
Dress £40 River Island
Deck shoes £69.95 Moda in Pelle
Bag £65 FiorelliTunic £35 BHS
Top £20 Simply Be
Fashion_Jan30.indd 31 25/01/2016 14:28:24
32
TrendM
AIN
PH
OT
O H
AIR
: LIL
Y A
T S
AK
S, E
XE
TE
R M
AK
E-U
P: C
LA
RIN
S, D
EB
EN
HA
MS
(BO
TH
PR
INC
ES
SH
AY
) PH
OT
OG
RA
PH
Y: S
TE
VE
HA
YW
OO
DA
SSIS
TE
D B
Y E
LL
IE J
ON
ES
& S
OP
HIE
WH
ITIN
G
t’s the fi nal weekend in January. This means it’s time to assess how we are doing with those pesky New Year reso-
lutions. How many times have you managed to raise your heart rate this month? If you’re anything like me, you didn’t quite live up to your own expectations.
It’s so frustrating. But when it is cold and dark, all I want is a duvet, Netfl ix and hot chocolate. Cardio and carrots just don’t light my fi re. But winter doesn’t last forever, and I really don’t fancy greeting spring looking anything like Jabba the Hut. Which got me thinking. What would it take to get me into the gym a bit more regularly?
I used some estab-lished behavioural patterns of mine to come up with a theory. You see, I have found that if I have a new blouse or pair of heels to strut about in, that always seems to make getting out of bed for work on a Monday morn-ing much easier. Therefore, it stands to reason that if I were to have a lovely new piece of gym kit, I would be much more motivated to hit the treadmill.
So, in the name of wellness I skipped my Saturday morning Pi-lates class (I had nothing to wear!)and went to Princesshay shopping centre in Exeter. The key colourway this season seems to be a combina-tion of brights with greys. Brights can either be worn in the form of a single-coloured vest or cover up, or as a kaleidoscopic pattern covering the expanse of full length leggings. The colours were so invigorating I felt like bursting into an aerobics sequence just looking at them. After
some strenuous deliberation I chose a zesty lime coloured zip-up as my fi rst dose of inspiration.
All those skipped sessions meant that I didn’t have the courage to don a pair of leggings reminiscent of Mardi Gras, but I was very partial these grey marbled ones. I like to think the subtle yet hypnotic swirls can distract from the packets of bis-cuits I have snaffl ed down since 2016 began.
I’m the chilly sort, so a new fl eece was also on the cards. I really fan-cied this charcoal grey one, it was strokeably soft, and almost as cosy
as the clouds of duvet I like to swathe myself in when the tempera-ture drops.
The beauty of having a fashion-for-ward workout ward-robe is that it allows for fl exibility. These pieces are so easy on the eye I’ll happily accept a last minute post workout coffee in-vitation from a friend. Usually I would want to transition into
skinny jeans and a knit but with my two new layers I am cosy and casual chic, perfect for cappuccino time.
Update: It’s been a week since my new additions, and I have done one cardio session and one yoga class. Not exactly an Olympian training schedule but it is a 200% improve-ment from the week before. Such is the power of the new kit that I have made a deal with myself (and I rec-ommend you do the same, bribery is key in such situations) If I can sustain three sessions a week through Febru-ary then I can have a pair of the most dazzling gym leggings I can fi nd. Now that’s my kind of carrot.All fashion in these pictures is from Princesshay Shopping Centre, Exeter, www.princesshay.co.uk
The colours were so
invigorating I felt like bursting into an aerobics
sequence just looking at them
Kathryn Clarke-Mcleod � exes her fashion muscles
HOW TO WEAR IT:
I
Activewear
Trainers, Next, Princesshay, £32
Leggings, Next, Princesshay, £16
TShirt, Next, Princesshay, £4.50
Active Top, Next, Princesshay, £30
Fleece, Next, Princesshay, £24
Trend_Jan30.indd 32 26/01/2016 11:47:28
33
GET THE
look Printed leggings £12.99 NEW LOOK
Crop top £9.99 NEW LOOK
Grey non-padded non-wired sports
bra £22 NEXTRucksack £25 NEXT
Zip up top £24.99 NEW LOOK
Eva flip flops £7 ACCESSORIZE
fave!
Grey sweater £29 TOPSHOP
Trend_Jan30.indd 33 26/01/2016 11:48:05
34
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, treat your loved one to the nest Italian food at a Cupid’s Carnivores Night at Fi� een
Cornwall, overlooking the beach at Watergate Bay, on Friday, February 12. Guests will start the evening with a glass of pros-
ecco or a Peroni, Italy’s nest beer, and a board of authentic Italian antipasti to share. For the main course, the best
Cornish steak will be seared to perfection, with a selection of sweet treats for pudding. Places are £55, visit www.� � een-
cornwall.co.uk and call 01637 861000 to book
Film star in Exeter
Food of love
Nick Moran – the star of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – is soon to be appearing live in Exeter. The city’s Northcott Theatre is staging an exciting new adaptation of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, the venue’s rst full in-house produc-tion in six years. Betrayal begins at the end of an a� air and pursues a journey back to its very beginnings. Nick, who has also starred as the Death Eater, Scabior, in the Harry Potter lms, is already in Exeter now, busy rehearsing with fellow cast members Simon Merrells and Sarah-Jane Potts. Well worth seeing! Betrayal is at Exeter Northcott February 18 to March 5. Tickets £13-£17 plus £2 booking fee, see exeternorthcott.co.uk
culturevulture
Our guide to the arts scene in the South West by woman-in-
the-know Sarah Pitt
Cornwall’s rst-ever ukulele fes-tival is being held in Penzance next weekend. It is organised by the Dancing Flea Orchestra, a local group of community sing-ers turned ukulele players. The free festival kicks o� at 2pm at the Mill Bar and Restau-rant on Sunday, February 7
with workshops, impromptu performances and an open mic session. Special guest will be international ukulele player Phil Doleman, pictured. Find out more at www.facebook.com/dancing� ea-orchestra, visit www.crbo.co.uk or call 0845 094 0428
Strumming
festival fun
CV_Jan30.indd 34 25/01/2016 17:26:08
35
Enjoy
Your starsby Cassandra Nye
PISCES (February 20 - March 20)Feeling confi dent could lead you into an argument that you cannot win. Keep your
fi nances away from prying eyes and be prepared to say ‘no’ as and when you need to! A younger person needs your advice but may be reluctant to ask for it. Are you going to give it anyway?
ARIES (March 21 - April 20)Changes in a close relationship should be seen as a natural progression. Per-
haps you have outgrown someone or they have outgrown you. With lots of energy it is time to look ahead and make some adjustments. Your natural instinct is to be open and honest and to speak your mind. It is important to stick to your guns when it comes to decisions.
TAURUS (April 21 - May 21)Check your relationships with others. Perhaps a change is long overdue so
give it your attention. Money matters seem a bit ‘up in the air’ which can really cramp your style. Be determined to do your best to fi nd a better balance. Once on the right path nobody will be able to shake you off.
GEMINI (May 22 - June 21)Cast an eye over your closest relation-ships to see where there is room for
improvement. Pay attention to any disagreements now rather than later. Relation-ships can be damaged by lack of action.
Business-wise be sure that an approach is what it seems. Decisions made now could drag on. The only way to avoid this is to combine ideas with action.
CANCER (June 22 - July 22)It may be time to take the lead, but expect some competition. If someone
has something that you really want then your passions could take charge. Some-thing in your more stubborn nature may tell you to resist a suggestion from someone in authority but this is not a week in which to ‘rock the boat’.
LEO (July 23 - August 23)Curb your emotions to avoid appear-ing over-sensitive. This is especially
true if someone is showing an interest in a loved one. Perhaps you see more in this than there is in reality. Changes at work may not be to your liking but, taken on balance, could really turn out to be in your favour.
VIRGO (August 24 - September 23)Someone who is exciting may tempt you
into a foolish move. This is an intense and passionate time. Those who have been with their partner for some time may seek to make an exciting proposal. Careful! You may be ready to move ahead but your partner has some think-ing to do.
LIBRA (September 24 - October 23)Follow your instincts both in business
and romance. Passions involve both love and money this week. There could be a disagreement about a household expense. Ask yourself if it is worth the aggravation. It is? Make your feelings clear, suggest a solution, then stand back!
SCORPIO (October 24 - November 22)Be with others and inspire them at the weekend. Are you starting to plan a
holiday? Get the details clear early on because someone is going to ask you a lot of questions! A new interest seems to be taking up too much of your time. Even though you enjoy it, sometimes you need to say ‘no’.
SAGITTARIUS (November 23 - December 21)You make your own luck, but avoid dwelling in the past. Soon any backward
thoughts are quelled by an announce-ment from the family. Surprised? You will be! A windfall is likely but, again, it is all of your own making.
CAPRICORN (December 22 - January 20)Keep a low profi le if you do not relish a heated discussion. Certainly keep
things simple if there are any fi nancial discussions. Someone may deliberately misun-derstand what you say and be awkward about it.
Marcus Mumford
This week’s sign: Happy birthday to...Aquarians typically fall into two camps: the shy and sensitive types and the e� ervescent exhibitionists, but both are strong-willed in their own way. But that doesn’t mean stubborn: one endearing characteristic is the willingness of Aquarians to listen to others and admit to being wrong. Even when you stick to your own opinion, you’re so considerate of other people’s views that you’re a great friend to share time and conversation with, Aquarius!
born January 31, 1987Mumford & Sons star Marcus was born in California, but returned to the UK with his Eng-lish parents when he was tiny and grew up in south west London. He penned the band’s � rst album Sigh No More while living in Edinburgh where he went to university. He married � lm star Carey Mulligan in Somerset in 2012 and the couple live a low-key life away from the limelight on a farm in Devon. The couple an-nounced the birth of their � rst child, daughter Evelyn, in September.
AQUARIUS (January 21 - February 19)It is a fast-action week but take time to make decisions. Surprises and secrets
are all around and you soon pick up on them. If someone is trying to hide something from you, they are not making a good job of it! Ask yourself why. If their aim is getting a reaction, you have been forewarned. It depends what sort of mood you are in but, generally speaking, people who ‘play games’ irritate you.
CV_Jan30.indd 35 25/01/2016 17:26:42
36
Wellbeing
the boost
Life just got better. We’ve handpicked the latest wellness trends,
best-body secrets and expert advice to help you be your
best self, everyday
Bake O� star Howard Middleton is backing a campaign to raise awareness of tinnitus.
The condition, a ringing or buzzing in the ears, is experienced by around six
million people in the UK and at present there is no cure. To help � nd a cure, why
not hold a tea party to support the British Tinnitus Association’s research, during its awareness week, from February 8?
Sign up to take part www.teafortinnitus.co.uk and you’ll be sent a pack which
includes a teatime recipes by Howard, who competed in The Great British Bake
O� in 2013.
HEAR, HEAR!
Many beauty brands advise a patch test to check for any adverse reaction, before you apply their products. Yet a study by the British
Association of Beauty Therapists and Cosmetologists reveals that the majority of us disregard the safety instructions. False eyelash glue and
tanning products are the most commonly applied without checking the instructions. Jason Phillips of the BABTAC warns: “It’s far better to be
a little organised now than end up in A&E.”
Safety fi rst
BEER is known to make hair super-glossy: try Lush’s Cynthia Sylvia Stout (£4.75), which
contains a measure of beer, plus a dash of shine-enhancing lemon juice.
Wellbeing_Jan30.indd 36 25/01/2016 14:36:20
37
What’s coming up? Tweet us your wellbeing diary dates @WMNWest or email [email protected]
Switching to fat-free milk’s a great way to cut calories if you like a regular cuppa, but let’s face it,
it’s not quite as satisfying. So hooray for a newly launched fat-free milk, which the dairy behind it says tastes as good as semi-skimmed. Arla Best of
Both contains added natural milk proteins to make it taste more like milk with higher fat content. Look
out for bottles with yellow tops in the shops.
Best of both
Coronation Street actress Kym Marsh says that juggling work and a young family rules out visits to the gym, saying;
“I was starting to really feel that I was putting weight on, uncomfortable in my clothes, and there were bits that
wobbled.” So she jumped at the chance to create a home workout DVD. Her home workout created with the help of
personal trainers Matt Baker and Sam Witter, is called Power Sculpt and takes just 20 minutes – perfect timing for mums
on the run.
Sweettreats
WORKOUT FOR
MUMS ON THE RUN
Cookery writer Susanna Booth used her polymer chemistry degree to create sugar-free treats in her new recipe book, Sensationally Sugar Free (Hamlyn, £20). She uses apple puree and sweet fruits, plus
natural sweeteners like stevia, to create a host of better-for-you sweet dishes. Recipes include sugar-free banana bread and dark chocolate tea cake, sweetened with dates. Sounds delicious.
KYM’S BRAND NEW
Wellbeing_Jan30.indd 37 25/01/2016 14:36:56
Wellbeing
My doctor says I need hip surgery. What’s involved?JH, Penryn
Roman Miller, consultant
orthopaedic surgeon, Peninsula NHS Treatment Centre says: Hip
surgery is the most commonly carried out surgical procedure in the UK. Ac-cording to the National Joint Register, more than 99,000 hip procedures were undertaken in England and Wales in 2014.
A hip replacement is recommended for pa-tients whose hips have become so painful through damage that the pain interferes with everyday living, such as walking, driving and getting dressed. Some common reasons why a hip might become damaged include osteoarthri-tis, rheumatoid arthritis and hip fracture.
A new hip joint can relieve pain, increase mo-bility and contribute to a better quality of life. The operation can be carried out under general anaesthetic or an epidural. Your surgeon will make an incision on the side of your hip, remove the damaged hip joint and replace it with an ar-tificial joint. The procedure takes 60-90 minutes.
QThe days when you had to rest for weeks af-
terwards are long gone. At the Peninsula NHS Treatment Centre in Plymouth, we have our pa-tients on their feet on day one after surgery and, with the support of physiothera-pists, you will be mobile enough to go home 3-4 days after the op-eration.
Patients are given exercises to do at home and instructions on how to use mobility aids such as crutches. For the first 4-6 weeks you will need crutches to get around and you will need to do your exercises to make best use of your new hip joint.
All surgery comes with risk, but the chances of serious com-plications for hip replacements are very low – less than 1%. A modern artificial hip is designed to last for at least 15 years on average.
Hip resurfacing is an alternative to hip replace-ment and involves removing the damaged surfac-es of the bones inside the hip joint and replacing them with metal surfaces. Its advantage over a
38
Is it time for your new hip?
A new hip joint can relieve
pain, increase mobility and
contribute to a better quality
of life [[What to consider when your doctor mentions hip replacement
hip replacement is that it removes less bone, but it is only really effective in younger adults who have relatively strong bones. It is not as common-ly carried out as hip replacements, not least be-
cause of concerns about the new metal on metal bearing surfaces causing potential damage to soft tissues. Your consultant will be able to advise you.
As an NHS patient, you can choose where to have your hip replaced, including here at the Peninsula NHS Treatment Centre. Just speak to your GP for a referral. Our waiting times are three to four weeks from referral to your first outpatient appointment and 10 to 11 weeks from referral to surgery. All tests and X-rays are done at the first appointment. We have no
incidences of hospital-acquired infections and we are in the top 50 centres in the UK for our hip work. Call 01752 506070 or visit www.peninsulatreatment-centre.nhs.uk
WellbeingQ&A_Jan30.indd 38 25/01/2016 14:39:36
• Exclusive Hire • Weddings • 5* Bed & Breakfast • Outdoor TheatresCorporate Events • Afternoon Teas & Lunches • Garden Open Days
What we do…
20 minutes from Plymouth, family run, stately 17th centuryB&B, beautifully restored and set within 2000 acres of
stunning gardens and grounds
A hidden treasureon your doorstep
Please contact the Castle Office on
www.pentillie.co.uk
Pentillie Castle & Estate, St Mellion, Saltash, Cornwall, PL12 6QD
• Exclusive Hire • Weddings • 5* Bed & Breakfast • Outdoor TheatresCorporate Events • Afternoon Teas & Lunches • Garden Open Days
What we do…
20 minutes from Plymouth, family run, stately 17th centuryB&B, beautifully restored and set within 2000 acres of
stunning gardens and grounds
A hidden treasureon your doorstep
Please contact the Castle Office on
www.pentillie.co.uk
Pentillie Castle & Estate, St Mellion, Saltash, Cornwall, PL12 6QDUntitled-2 4 26/01/2016 14:24:58
16 Fore Street Ivybridge PL21 9AB
www.jazinteriors.co.uk
01752 894012
inspired
accessories
French
interiors
and home
jazinteriors
SALE NOW ON
©LW
Stressless®
anniversary edition
Limited Edition Opal Recliners
£999Save £290*M
The Back Centre, Erme Court, Leonards Road, Ivybridge, Devon PL21 0SZ
t:01752893414 |Open:Mon-Sat,9:00am-5:00pm|www.backcentre.co.uk
*Terms & Conditions apply: Opal Medium £999, RRP £1289. Large £1099, RRP £1469. Available only in Batick Cream & Natural, Batick Brown & Brown, Batick Mole & Teak. While stocks last.
Main image features the Opal Large recliner and footstool in Batick Brown.
The frst Stressless® recliner was produced in 1971.
To mark the 45th anniversary of our iconic recliners
we are offering this special limited edition model - the
Stress/ass® Opal. Stressless®Opal is inspired by the
fords surrounding our factory in picturesque Norway.
Available while stocks last with immediate delivery in
3 beautiful leather colours.
©LW
Untitled-2 2 26/01/2016 14:26:29
41
Tim Maddams is a Devon chef and author of Game: River Cottage Handbook no. 15 (Bloomsbury £14.99)
o respectable herb or cottage garden is complete without at least one decent bush of sage, yet this herb is often undervalued and underused in the
kitchen. As any herbalist will tell you, however, it is far from useless. Sage has been used as a medicine since the dawn of time (as far as I can make out) and common uses from around the world include the treatment for sore throats where a hot tea is gargled. For an upset tummy a sage tea is drunk and to control excessive sweating, again a tea is imbibed.
As ever, though, it is the culinary uses that interest me the most and there can be little doubt that while this is not the easiest of herbs to work with – its vigorous fl avour can be extremely unforgiving in the wrong place – it is one of the most rewarding of
the whole herb tribe. The best thing about sage is that, along with its bedfellows rosemary, thyme and savoury, it is among the more hardy of the herbs, its leaves survive all but the harshest and
most lingering of frosts, though even then it will return with gusto in the spring.
I highly recommend beginning your sage encounters with some eggs. Simply scrambling eggs with plenty of butter which has had a minute or two to get to know a few sage leaves is a very good starting point. Use fresh sage or not at all (with the exception of making sausages where dried sage is just about permissible). The other main bit of advice I would dole out about this wonderful herb is not to overdo it, a hint of sage is in most cases far better than a massive
whack, a few leaves under the skin of a roasting chicken rather than a whole bundle of leaves added to the gravy last minute.
NSage adviceSage works well cooked with butter and dressed over pasta, especially with a pumpkin and ricotta ravioli. Its relationship with onions is well documented.
The Italians are big users of sage throughout their cuisine. The classic Italian combination is probably sage and liver, the liver being lightly fl oured, pan fried in butter or oil with sage leaves and fi nished with lemon. Or you could try fi sh wrapped in air dried ham and sage leaves and then pan fried.
@TimGreenSauce
Simply scramble eggs with plenty of butter which
has had a minute or two
to get to know a few sage leaves [[
Eat
Ingredient of the Week
Sagewith Tim Maddams
TIM_Jan30.indd 41 26/01/2016 13:01:25
42
Method:
This recipe comes from A Taste of the West Country (£16.99) by the food producers’ cooperative, Taste of the West, with photography by David Griffen. To order your copy, edited and designed by
Jeff Cooper of We Make Magazines, see www.tasteofthewest.co.uk or call 01404 822012
1. Combinetheyeastandwater,leavefor10minutes.Addtotheflourandsalttomakethedough.Leavecoveredfor1.5hoursinawarmplace.
2. Pulloutthedoughandshape150gpiecesintotriangles.Rollandcutslitsinthebreadwithasharpknife(seepictureforhowitshouldlook).Pushintheolivesalloverthedough.
3. Allowthebreadtoproveagainonatray,coveredwithacarrierbag,for40minutes.Meanwhile,makethehummus.
4. Putthechickpeas,oliveoil,crushedgarlic,harissapasteandtomatopuree,alongwithacoupleof pinchesof salt,intoablender.
Ingredients
For the bread:1kg55flour(whiteFrenchbreadflour)600mlwaterat20C20gsalt25gfreshyeast150pittedolives(MattusesMoorishcuminandcorianderolivesfromOlivesEtAl)
For the hummus:1x400gtinchickpeas,drainedandrinsed5tbspoliveoil1garlicclove,crushed2tbspharissapaste(MattusesOlivesEtAlredchillipaste)1tbsptomatopuree1lemonorlime
Olive fougasse bread with harissa hummusRecipe by Matt Street, head chef of The Eastbury Hotel, Sherborne, Dorset
Blitzitupwithacoupleof squeezesof lemonorlime,thenputstraightintoyourfavouriteservingdish.Allagenerousdollopof harissapasteanddrizzleoliveoiloverthetop.
5. Settheovento200Candplacearoastingtinonthebottomof theovencontaining100mlof water.Theaddedmoistureintheovenwilladdcolourtothebread.Removethebreadfromthebag,andplacethetrayintheoven.Bakefor15-20minutes.
6. Grabasharingplateorboardandputonitthefreshly-bakedfougassebread,thehummusandasmalldippingdishof oliveoilforyourwarm,beautifulbread.
Matt says: ‘This recipe can be easily made at home, for a quick light meal or a great addition to a charcuterie dinner’ Made using olive oil, olives and harissa paste from Olives Et Al, Dorset
Eat
Beer_Jan30.indd 42 26/01/2016 13:03:16
Drink
A� er raising £2,300 for Paignton Zoo’s gira e conservation work with a beer, Tall Order, last year, Bays Brewery is to create a rhino-themed charity beer in 2016 to raise funds for the zoo’s Great Big Rhino Project.
Duty campaignThe campaign for a fourth successive cut in beer duty in the March Budget has begun. Personally, I think four years in a row might be optimistic, but you never know. CAMRA, SIBA and the British Beer and Pub Association have joined forces to lobby MPs via an Early Day Motion, citing bene ts in terms of jobs and keeping pubs open.
RHINO AID
43
Darren Norburytalks beer
he recent cold snap jolted me into a purchase: a £6 scarf from a well-known superstore. I have taken to wearing it, I think, slightly rakishly,
like an old boy from one of the Oxbridge colleges displaying his Alma mater colours. I’m getting on a bit now. Feeling the cold. I wore it to Exeter Beer Festival, but once I tried Tap-stone Brewery’s Opium Wars, from Chard, in Somerset, I real-ised said scarf was superfl uous as a winter warmer.
This was my beer of the fes-tival. First impressions didn’t bode well. Although dark brown, it was clearly, or rather unclearly, not so much hazy as downright cloudy, like a dusk January sky off a stormy Cornish coast. My drinking pals thought I may have purchased a duffer and were looking round for pot plants on my behalf. But no. What a rev-elation. A brown beer with a marked American hops aroma, rather than the malty hit I’d been
expecting. There were, however, lovely smokey notes from the malt. Terrifi c. Beer of the day. Not that there weren’t plenty of other gems.
Thank you, Quercus Brewery, of Churchstow, in Devon, for Harry’s, a 4.6% ABV bitter. It was not made with odd ingredients, nor did it have an outstanding aroma or hop bite. It was just well balanced and really, really well-made. Look out for it. First beer of the day was South Hams Brewery’s Pandemonium (5% ABV) and that certainly didn’t disappoint. Biscuit from the malt and nice fruit notes. Like all the other beers, well kept and served by the Exeter CAMRA team.
I haven’t even mentioned the great Isca, Otter, Exmoor, Gyle 59, Tavy Ales or Teignworthy brews. The day was over too quick-ly, although there were one or two hostelry stops en route back to Cornwall. Chilly out, though. In the end, I was glad I had that scarf.Darren Norbury is editor of beertoday.co.uk @beertoday
T
The Tapstone Opium Wars was the winner this week (see main article), but a close-run second
at Exeter was a ‘foreign’ beer, all the way from Liverpool! If their Winter Gold (5.6% ABV) is anything to go by, Peerless Brewing Co beers are worth
looking out for. Clearly plenty of citrus hops going on, but a nice
spiciness in the background. Very moreish!
Beer of the week
I tried Tapstone Brewery’s
Opium Wars, from Chard, and
I’d found the perfect winter
warmer [[Beer_Jan30.indd 43 26/01/2016 13:04:15
44
My Secret Westcountry
Emylia Hall
44
My favourite...
Place to write: Just as a writer always hopes their next book will be their best, I always hope my next writing retreat will be my most productive. I love being by the sea in low season, so I’m headed to St Ives in deepest January, staying in a tiny cottage just steps back from the beach. It is the perfect bolthole in which to work on my new novel. In the summer months I love writing under the apple tree in my mum and dad’s garden, in the Teign Valley, where I grew up.
Beach: Ness Cove in Shaldon was my favourite beach as a child. I loved it for its dark and dank
smugglers’ tunnel and bright red cliffs. I was on this same beach in 2011 with my husband when my agent called me with the amaz-ing news that I had a book deal for my fi rst novel, The Book of Summers. Ness Cove is, in every sense, my Happy Place.
Walk: I love the wild and wonderful walk from East Prawle down to Horseley Cove in South Devon, a footpath that winds through the fi elds, past black-eyed cattle and stacks of lobster pots. Then it’s onto the South West Coast Path, for rock-scrambling and cove-hopping and spar-kling views that stop you in your tracks.
Restaurant: It has to be The Old Coast-guard in Mousehole, for dining by the fi reside, surrounded by original paint-ings, and the view across the palm-tree fi lled garden to the sea beyond. It’s an
altogether gorgeous setting, the staff are lovely,
Emylia Hall is an author, whose most recent novel The Sea Between Us is a love story set in a cove in the far west of Cornwall. She grew up in the Teign valley in south Devon where her father, an artist, and her mother, a half-Hungarian quiltmaker, still live. Emylia lives in Bristol with her husband Robin and toddler son Calvin Jack, but spends a lot of time in Devon and Cornwall.
East Prawle
Stargazy pie at The Old Coastguard Hotel
MSW_Jan30.indd 44 25/01/2016 13:43:30
454545
People
and the food manages to be simultaneously refi ned and comforting. Perfect.
Arts venue/festival: Appledore Book Festi-val and Fowey Festival are both really special. As an author I attend quite a lot of literary events and these are two of my favourites. Idyl-lic locations, a lively programme of talks, and organisers who take great care to ensure the experience is a pleasure for audience and speak-ers alike. Cream teas, and a spot of paddling, are essential post-event pastimes.
Tipple: When I was small my mum used to make elderfl ower champagne. It was non-alcoholic, but it gave me a thrill as a child to be drinking this deliciously fl oral fi zz. I remember one year the bottles popped their corks of their own accord, and my dad’s studio, where they were stored, got quite a dousing.
Westcountry food: A slice of pumpkin and chocolate cake from the West Beach Bakery on Porthmeor Beach, St Ives, please! Best enjoyed while still in your wetsuit, after hitting the surf in the early morning. Perhaps it was a case of conditions colliding – the empty seas, the bright light of morning, the adrenaline of physical exercise - but that slice of cake was one of the best I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a lot!
Emylia’s favourite writing spot in her parents’ garden
Appledore Book Festival
St Ives
The Old Coastguard Hotel
The Sea Between Us by Emylia Hall is published by Headline, £7.99
MSW_Jan30.indd 45 25/01/2016 13:43:54
46
What a Week
and relax...
My life
hey’re all at it. Up and down the Westcountry, in pubs and cafes, libraries and living rooms, you can hear their scratch-
ing and squeaking. Surely, you must have seen them? Who are they? I now realise that what I’m describing sounds like some kind of infes-tation of rodents. Don’t worry. The scratching and squeaking comes from colour pencils and felt-tipped pens. What I learned this week is the Westcountry has been overrun with Adult Col-ourer In’ers.
I’m not sure where it all started. Perhaps a parent, in possession of a few felt tips and their child’s colouring book, thought: “If I just do a little bit of colouring in nobody will ever know. I bet I’ll do it much neater than young Johnny did.” From there it would have spread virally – which, of course, means antibiotics cannot stop the Adult Colourer In’er epidemic.
Eager to find out more, I chatted with a lady in a coffee shop. The conversation started because, caught up in the colouring in moment, she’d flicked her discarded pencil sharpening into my unsuspect-ing latte. As I fished out the shaving, I asked her why she did it.
“It’s relaxing, we’re all at it,” she replied. “It helps with stress.”
It was true; this lady seemed very stress free – far too relaxed to offer to buy me a replacement coffee. All around me there were people, old enough to know better, furiously colouring in. Could the simple action of not going outside the lines really be that calming?
It’s true, even here in the Westcountry, stress takes it toll. It’s an inevitable part of our, oc-casionally, hectic 21st century lives. For me, stress relief usually consists of long brisk walks
on the beach. Or long brisk walks on the moors. Or shorter, but equally brisk, walks to the off licence. But here, in colouring in, had I found another route to relaxation that didn’t involve brisk walks (long or short)? I decided to give it a go: in private.
I waited for my girlfriend to go out, found my stash of pencils and the colouring book I’d bought at a rather trendy art shop – they’d put it in a plain brown paper bag. Within minutes I’d started on my first picture, a drawing of Brontosaurus that I decided to colour purple. I coloured diligently – keeping inside
the lines, with what I felt was an admi-rable use of shading. I’d almost used up my entire purple pencil, when a noise made me start (and create a totally unwanted zigzagging purple line across an oth-erwise very
neat blue sky). It was my girlfriend arriving home, several hours had passed and I hadn’t even noticed. I panicked, but managed to hide the book with only seconds to spare. Being found doing colouring in is one of those things that’s not easy to explain away. It was all very stressful.
On reflection, this week I’ve learned that colouring in isn’t the relaxation aide I hoped it would be.
T
Chris McGuire attempts the latest stress-busting technique
For me, stress relief is a long brisk walk on the beach. Or a shorter, but equally brisk,
walk to the off-licence [[
The worry of being discovered colouring in far outweighed any stress-relieving benefit. I’d prefer to buy a book that’s already coloured in for me. It did, however, get me thinking. There is a new trend I’d like to start: a ‘Rubbing Out’
book for adults. You start with a book that’s completely full of text and pictures – all
there to be rubbed out – and finish with page after page of blank paper. It’s my
Dragons’ Den idea, so don’t try to nick it! When it comes to relaxa-tion, it’s got to be at least as good as a brisk walk.
Chris McGuire is a writer who re-cently moved to the Westcountry.
His hobbies include brisk walks and reading books that are
already coloured in.
NEXT WEEK: Phil Goodwin on love, life and being a dad to a dinosaur-mad five year old
ChrisM_Jan30.indd 46 26/01/2016 12:46:11
Call 0800 0933449www.agswindows.co.uk
MARINESPECTM
THE ANTI CORROSION HARDWAREBritish Made
Tiled roof options
Upgrading your conservatory is quick, simple and comes at a much lower cost than replacing the entire conservatory.
We can design a cost-effective replacement conservatory that will use the existing base and create a thermally efficient extra room that will extend your permanent living space all year round. to get a no-obligation quote simply call us with the external brickwork size of your old conservatory and tell us which features you would like to incorporate in the replacement.
Step 1 - Remove:We take down the roof, windows and the PVCu frame of your existing conservatory.
Step 2 - Replace:We install a brand new frame, thermally efficient windows, your chosen roof and choice of French, Patio or Bi-Fold Doors.
Step 3 - Relax:We take away all the mess leaving you to enjoy your brand new conservatory.
SpRead the coSt
ask about ourreally competitive
finance options today!
Upgrade Your Conservatory
Untitled-2 3 26/01/2016 13:48:46
HEARTH & COOK’S
WINTERWARMER
Banish the winter bluesCome and explore our heart-warming stoves,
stunning range cookers and beautiful kitchens, whilst enjoying delicious nibbles from our chefs,
freshly prepared throughout the day...
THURSDAY 4TH FEBRUARY 10AM - 7PM
Find us inManaton Close,
100 yards behindCarrs Ferrari& Maserati.
Call 01392 797679www.hearthandcook.com
14 Oaktree Place,Manaton Close, Matford,
Exeter. EX2 8WA
Summeris just aroundthe corner -
WIN this MorsøGrill Forno!Enter our free raffle on
the day. Conditionsapply.
Drinksand lots of
delicious foodto sample from
our chefs!
Untitled-2 1 26/01/2016 14:02:14